The proposed training program brings together a highly interactive and productive faculty of basic scientists and physician scientists from the School of Medicine at UNC who will focus on our overall theme of Innate Lung Defense. We offer our graduate students and fellow extraordinary opportunities in multidisciplinary research to become well trained as Tobacco Research Scientists. As outlined in this application, our record as mentors demonstrates that the outstanding new scientists that we propose to train will excel at interdisciplinary approaches which will facilitate the development of their own research programs focused on how the environment influences human disease. In essence, we want to train independent, highly efficient, and innovative investigators who can become successful Tobacco Regulatory Scientists. We wish them to have a broad spectrum of skills in basic and clinical sciences and to understand how Tobacco Regulatory Science is efficiently performed. We wish them to have experienced stand-alone, independent research admixed with collaborative research with other postdoctoral trainee colleagues and senior investigators. Finally, we wish them to know how to finish the game, i.e., write up their results for publication in high-quality peer-reviewed journals, and begin the game, i.e., learn how to write competitive grant applications to national agencies.